Billy Vaughn, 72; Big-Band Musician

Billy Vaughn, a big-band musician who prospered through the beginning of rock ‘n’ roll with such hits as “Melody of Love” and “A Swingin’ Safari,” died of cancer Thursday, officials at Palomar Medical Center said.

Vaughn, 72, began his career as a singer with a vocal group called the Hilltoppers in the early 1950s, moving on to become a composer, arranger and big band leader with Paramount Recording Studios.

He left the Hilltoppers in 1954 and formed his own band, Billy Vaughn and His Orchestra. The band appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, and its recording of “Melody of Love” went to No. 2 on the charts in 1955.

“I remember many nights, he would work all night in the studio,” said Adam Beilenson of Paramount Recording. “He was a master in his time. There was a magic there.”

Vaughn was the musical director of the now-defunct Dot Records and arranged songs for Pat Boone and the Mills Brothers.

Vaughn was born April 12, 1919, in Glasgow, Ky., and served in the Army during World War II. His band’s other hit records included “Hawaiian War Chant,” “Trying,” “Blue Hawaii,” “Come September,” “Berlin Melody,” “Look for a Star,” “La Paloma,” “Sail Along Silvery Moon,” “The Shifting Whispering Sands (Parts 1 & 2),” “Raunchy” and “When the White Lilacs Bloom Again.”

He is survived by his wife, Marion, three children and six grandchildren.

Services will be held Monday at Escondido’s Bethel Baptist Church.